Breast Cancer is Stealing our Best and Brightest

Just this past week the terrifying scourge of breast cancer took two of our best and brightest women. Unfortunately, this is not rare.

Both so very young.

One was Angelina Jolie’s mother, just 56 years of age. The second was the famously insightful reporter, Molly Ivins, whose syndicated column was read by millions every week. Molly Ivins was a gem. In a world where women’s voices are still rare, her’s could not be ignored.

She wasn’t just good at what she did, she was great. I didn’t always agree with her, but I always read her. She had a unique way of seeing the world and putting it into words that made a Molly Ivins column totally recognizable and often unforgettable. She was passionate and inspirational, and now that passion and inspiration is gone. Stolen by breast cancer. Another one lost. When will this end?   

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), things are not getting any better. Death rates from cancer in this country are down, albeit just barely. In 2007, NCI predicts 178,480 women and 2,030 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer; 40,460 women and 450 men will die of it. Molly Ivins was one of the 41,000 we lost.

It may be better, but it is hardly good enough. It is an epidemic, a war just like Iraq, spiraling out of control by the second.

One of my patients had a double mastectomy last week against my passionate urging not to, and is now embarking on debilitating and crippling radiation treatment. The first reports from the pathologist are grim.
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